Dracula worth a bite
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 2004.
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The entire play takes place in the library of Dr. Quincy Seward's House in Purley, near London. Dr. Seward, played by a very confident Caroline Neale, specializes in the mentally ill and her mental hospital is in the grounds of her house. Her sister Dorothy Renfeld resides there and has suddenly gone insane. To boot her daughter, Mina, played by Jacinta Mohammed, has had her very close friend (Lucy Godalming) staying with them at her house and has died supposedly of anemia. Alan Hall plays Lucy's father, a lord and famous architect, who has blamed Lucy's death on Quincy and demanded a second opinion. Peter Riley's Professor Van Helsing, a world famous specialist on strange diseases has been contacted to investigate. Jonathan Harker plays Mena's frantically worried fiancée.
Of course, the wild card in the story is a very strange count, who lives near Dr. Quincy's residence. Played by Rick Glass, Count Dracula seems to have put Mena under some sort of spell, which opens up some suspicion as to what has befallen the victims before her.
CDS was ambitious to take on Dracula. A typical audience would attend a CDS play looking to find the sort of dry, cutting humour the troupe is normally known for. With this production, although there are some humorous bits, the real work on the part of the actors is done in the scenes of high terror - where the thespians get to stretch their legs and show real range. It may take a more mature audience to pick up this subtle difference and not default to looking for comedy in what is really quite a frightening story.
As an ensemble cast, the CDS actors perform admirably. Dracula: Lucy's Kiss is a strong production well worth seeing. Look out in the Weekender for a full review and picture spread.
